00:01Horrifying footage that shocked Italy.
00:03In June 2026, four migrant farm workers were locked in a car
00:08and burned to death at a gas station in Amendolara.
00:11They didn't stand a chance.
00:15Unfortunately, when these workers come to Italy or Europe,
00:17what they often encounter is this horrible cruelty.
00:24It's thought the four were killed by criminal recruiters
00:27because they protested against their working conditions.
00:30The murder sheds light on the exploitation of farm workers
00:33and the networks behind it.
00:38We're in southern Italy on the Ionian coast
00:41between Calabria and Basilicata,
00:43a fertile region where strawberries, peaches, apricots, melons and kiwis
00:48are grown and exported across Europe.
00:51The four murdered migrants worked here.
00:53They'd agreed to work for 45 euros for an eight-hour day.
00:58Their last paycheck was in April, two months before their murder.
01:04We meet Gervasio Ungolo,
01:06a farmer and founder of an organisation dedicated to raising awareness
01:10of the exploitation of farm workers.
01:12We return with him to the place where the four men died.
01:18Today, this place represents what agriculture in Italy and Europe has become.
01:22It makes no difference whether they're Pakistani, Afghan, Bangladeshi or African.
01:27This is what we see every year on our farmland.
01:32There's very little willingness to reflect on the real causes of these tragedies.
01:39Union activists Federica Pietramalla and Alessandro de Calo also campaign for better working conditions for farm workers.
01:47They show us how these people, mostly poor immigrants, are forced to live.
01:52Have you seen this house? Around 30 people live there.
01:58They're both doing what they can to help farm workers in the area.
02:02They try to find them in the houses that belong to the caporali,
02:05the illegal recruiters who hire farm workers, drive them to the fields in the morning
02:10and keep a large portion of their wages.
02:15It's currently abandoned, but before June 1st, when the events in Amendolara took place,
02:22it was home to at least 25 to 30 workers.
02:30Traces of those who once lived here remain.
02:38This is where the caporali keep the workers, even making them pay up to 100 euros a month to stay
02:45in this dilapidated building.
02:49Then they take them to work and make them pay for transportation.
02:57An hour away by car, we meet a group of African farm workers.
03:00They say they have a contract, but they can't find anywhere to live.
03:08The problem is Italians don't want to give a home to a black person.
03:11And if you go to renew your ID at the police station, they won't renew it for you.
03:15They only give it to you for two or three months. That's not good.
03:21It's estimated that in Italy alone at least 200,000 people work under such discriminatory and slave-like conditions,
03:27like the four victims from Amendolara.
03:31The public prosecutor's office in Calabria is leading the investigation into the two caporali arrested in connection with the murders.
03:39While Chief Prosecutor Alessandro D'Alessio can't talk about the specific case,
03:44he's convinced the mafia is involved.
03:49Maximizing profit is achieved by exploiting human beings.
03:53I believe this is one of the most brutal forms of barbarism that exists.
03:58Wherever a mafia organization sees an opportunity to make a profit, it tries to infiltrate.
04:02How? Through its true strength, the power to instill fear, intimidation,
04:08to secure special favors, including in the agricultural sector,
04:12agricultural production, and the transport of agricultural products as some investigations have shown.
04:20The victims of the violent attack, Amin, Ullah, Safi and Wassim,
04:25had also been working in one of the strawberry fields in Basilicata.
04:29Gervasio Ungolo tells us that although exploitation is commonplace,
04:34most local farmers try to follow the rules.
04:39Most farms are rule-abiding and have strong ethical and professional standards.
04:50But then there are those farms we end up reading about in the newspapers.
04:57But the problem begins at the point of immigration, he says.
05:01Many farm workers come to Italy on regular visas
05:03for farms that either don't exist or disappear.
05:07Often it's the illegal recruiters themselves who hire these workers
05:10while they're still in Pakistan or India, with promises they never keep once they arrive.
05:18They're promised a job that'll help them pay off the debt they incurred to leave home.
05:23We're talking about 10,000 to 15,000 euros.
05:26And to improve their lives and increase their income.
05:32In reality, though, once they arrive in Italy, they find themselves earning a pittance.
05:41This is how they so often end up in slave-like conditions.
05:46Union activists Federica and Alessandro try to free workers from such circumstances,
05:51like this group of Nepalese farm workers,
05:53who worked for the same criminal recruiters as the four people murdered in Amendolara.
06:00When we work in the field, he said, do fast, do fast, do fast.
06:07If you don't do the work, then we explain.
06:11Or you get, not get money, your money will be reduced.
06:24Very few dare to report the Caporali, but these Nepalese workers have.
06:31These workers reported the Caporali.
06:34They've been enrolled in a protection and assistance program
06:38that helps them with both their residence permits and housing.
06:43Never again slavery.
06:45A slogan painted on the ground at the gas station in Amendolara.
06:50A reminder, and a plea, at the very spot where four people were burned alive.
07:01A slogan painted on the ground at the gas station for the first time,
07:02a
